ShinHan2 OSL Finals - Anytime vs NaDa

There are those who had questioned the wisdom of the protoss leadership, handing over control and fate of the entire race to the youngest noble. There were others though, that said they had no choice. A year since his ascension to the highest order of the brotherhood, the self-exiled prodigy had returned to reclaim his rightful place atop the empire. Much as his doubters despised to admit it. He was needed to face this newest, and perhaps deadliest, threat.

Standing at the helm of his capitol ship Lee Yoonyeol gazed at the endless stars and watched as they spun on their invisible axis. His search had been long. So long that the burden rested comfortably on his shoulders and he scarcely noticed it anymore. But, it was always there and he dreamed for the moment where his prize could free him. He had long known that only one thing could reaffirm and cement his legacy, and that was the unattainable treasure. Held and guarded by the protoss, his own kind had repeatedly tried and failed to wrench it from their grasp. But as the galaxies flickered by his face, he felt confident that they had never seen a warrior like him.

OSL Finals time is here, and this is a matter of epic proportions. Firstly, we have Anytime, who is making is second title run. He holds the hopes of the protoss nation, and carries with him the Legend of the Fall. For those unsure of what that is, during each calendar year a protoss player has won the OSL in the fall season (except once where they graciously gave way to Boxer vs Iloveoov, the greatest finals ever). Anytime kept the Legend alive last year by defeating Boxer in five games. Now he is back, to face the greatest player (statistically speaking) to ever play.

Second up is NaDa. His time has taken him from the highest heights to the lowest lows. For those who were not watching, NaDa in his prime was simply unbeatable. He made BW look ridiculously easy, and his opponents did not just lose, they were obliterated. The OSL Finals between NaDa and ChoJJa was a farce, as NaDa showed the world who possessed the greatest TvZ. And then, tragedy. After transferring from KTF to form his own team, NaDa was mired in a terrible slump. As he struggled professionally, personal tragedy also hit home as his father passed away. Although he tried to use it as motivation, NaDa disappeared from the individual leagues, making only listless appearances in the proleague.

Now, however, NaDa is back. Not just back in the big leagues, but back in form, back in style, and back in contention. The forgotten Golden Mouse contender, he now has the opportunity to claim the treasure that has proved so elusive. Going after his third OSL title, NaDa has a chance to cement his place as the greatest champion of all time.

The Path of the Combatants

The unOfficial OGN Trailer

The unOfficial Legend of the Fall Trailer

Get Hyped!

As always, TL is THE place to be for OSL coverage, and there are a variety of ways to play.

Do you believe in NaDa, or do you believe in Anytime? Click on either one and show your support (also there is some awesome pics in those threads).

thedeadhaji, and pheer's server can get a BJ from me anytime. Why? Because they spend their cash to host GREAT games for us. If you have missed the first instalments of the Legend of the Fall, you can download every game of every series. Make sure you say thanks, because it is very generous. Click here for sex.

Dont like my version of events of the Legend of the Fall? Check out Panorama's post: + Show Spoiler +

Just in case anyone new to Pro Gaming doesn't know all the subtle details that make this game great, let me explain (also correct me if I'm wrong on anything. I'm not as big on pro gaming history as a lot of other people on this forum are):

The Legend of the FallThree OSLs stand out in the Fall, all involving the legendary and beloved SlayerS_`BoxeR`. In the middle of BoxeR's indomitable reign, He faces against a protoss known simply as "GARIMTO". If BoxeR wins this, he would have won three straight OSLs - 4 years before the concept of a "Golden Mouse Award" was even thought of. Through all the hype, the slight controversy (Incubus map), and the obvious fandom towards BoxeR, GARIMTO takes the series in a shocking 3-2 in the Fall of 2001.

One year later, BoxeR finds himself once again facing a Protoss, this time the one known as "Reach". With an awe-strucking display of Templar and Shuttle usage, Reach is able to take a win in one of the most memorable games in Pro SC history, and eventually the entire series, 3-2 in the Fall of 2002.

Three years later, and one year later after a heart-wrenching defeat to his own student, Oov, in the OSL Finals, BoxeR finds himself in a familiar position. It's the Fall of 2005, against Anytime - Protoss. Boxer, rehabilitated and in top shape after an amazingly heroic win over PuSan in the semi finals of this tournament, once again falls short of what is known as the "Legend of the Fall" - as Anytime takes his first OSL title, 3-2 in the Fall of 2005.

BoxeR would eventually retire after 6 years of professional gaming, leaving with almost every memorable pro gaming moment, a charisma the size of a small country, and every award..except the Golden Mouse Award acquired after three OSL victories.---Prior to Anytime's victory in 2005, NaDa suffered a terrible tragedy - the loss of his Father in a traffic accident. NaDa had not been doing well in the StarLeagues at this point, and the loss of his Father was a huge setback that forced him into a year-long slump. It was finally in this OSL that NaDa, the victor of also two OSL wins, would rise once again to the top of the list of dominating players, reaffirming that the Genius Terran wasn't going to slump forever.

Now we're in the Fall of 2006, with the Legend of the Fall still fresh in the minds of many. We all remember the disappointing back to back to back to back OSL Final losses BoxeR suffered. BoxeR was never able to acquire his 3rd victory, but NaDa could finish what BoxeR had left behind. All he needs to go through is one Protoss player - Anytime[gm], who has perpetuated the Legend like the Protoss deities before him.

And this is what is at stake in just over 24 hours.

This news post will be updated as the matches happen with game reports. Check back often for highlights of the action.

Game 1: Tau Cross

It begins...

With both spectators both in the stadium and around the world perched on the edge of their seats, the final match of the second ShinHan bank OSL opened on Tau Cross. Starting at cross positions, NaDa (@10) dropped two factories and added a machine shop to the first. Researching seige behind his block, he started a solid pump of tanks from the first factory and vultures from the second.

In the protoss base at 5, Anytime had opened with a gate/robo build, but expanded quickly after that. His first observer quickly spotted trouble as three tanks and a handful of vultures came south and set up camp outside his natural. He defended with his initial dragoons, and also tried to lure NaDa away with an empty shuttle. While he lost his tanks, NaDa managed to scatter Anytime's probes when his vultures slipped into the terran main. He took his own expansion when the pressure was on and the early engagement ended in a draw.

NaDa had started fast, but both players soon turned their attentions to economic matters. They both expanded again quickly to the mineral only spots while Anytime unsuccessfully harassed with a reaver. At his mineral only he warped in two forges for quick upgrades, and then expanded again to 4 o'clock for a third gas necessary for arbiters. In the opposite camp, NaDa was satisfied to rally mass tanks to his choke while harrassing and scouting the map with his vultures. With the rapid build-up, the two huge armies soon had no choice but to collide...

...and collide they did, in the dead center of the map. Once, twice, three times the protoss army came north to battle the terran metal, but every time they were sent reeling backwards. As NaDa pounded the protoss mineral expo, Anytime gathered up his next round of troops and headed north, cloaked under the gaze of the arbiter. His army cleared the mine field towards the newest terran expansion and forced NaDa to pull back. It looked like a suicide mission, but a timely stasis allowed him to stall the pursuing tanks and Anytime escaped out the side. As he retook his expansion he charged forth again, with goons and templars under the cloak. This time his storms were deadly accurate, frying masses of tanks prior to the goons allowing for easy cleanup. If that wasn't enough, his initial reaver reappeared at the terran expansion, taking advantage of NaDa's divided attention. With the humans on their heels, the warriors of Aiur charged up the right side of the map and halted new terran expansions. Anytime had delivered an amazing series of attacks, kept his marco up, and now controlled 70% of the map.

NaDa knew that his attention had to be his own money, rather than attacking protoss stongholds. He focused on sending his new armaments west towards 1 o'clock to gain another mineral field. His scv count had suffered mightly in this game, and he was continually dealing with templar drops while being attacked at the front by arbiter armies. With Anytime holding the untapped main, his final push had to be perfect to succeed. He detroyed a gas expansion at 3, and then quickly retreated to defend a counter attack where Anytime stayed far too long. Things were evening up as vultures temporarily stalled another epxansion but NaDa had only a single source himself.

As both players rallied their final armies towards three o'clock, the only hope for either of them, yet another storm drop hit NaDa's lone expansion. With this momentary distraction, Anytime attacked the terran army while it was stretched out, stasising half of it and wiping the other half out with minimal losses. As his units waited patiently for the thaw, NaDa typed gg and removed himself to the Peaks of Baekdu.

Anytime 1:0 NaDa

NaDa lost this by not building two stupid turrets. Anytime used reavers and ht to drop his expansion so often, but had NaDa simply built a couple turrets those actions would not have worked. With a nice starting advantage, Anytime almost threw it away in one of his frontal attacks, but his persistance of dropping paid off in the end. For the record, NaDa's apm was 373, with a top line of 567. Sick.

Game 2: Peaks of Baekdu

Having stunned NaDa, the Pantech team, and the majority of the TL forum with his impressive game 1 win, Anytime went back it in game two, spawning in the north and opening with a proxy gate on the ramp overlooking NaDa's natural. The first zealot hammered at the terran block in frustration, but there was nothing it could do that would allow entry. As NaDa put an add-on to his first factory, Anytime proxied a second time, this time to the west where he dropped a robotics facility. As NaDa sat behind his block, massing tanks and readying a command center, a lone scv scout slipped out of his base and by the protoss sentry. Anytime gave chase, but his second proxy was found before his first, spoiling the surprise he had in store.

Having seen the surprises, NaDa just played safe. He took his expansion, built a wraith to deal with the shuttle, and had two comstats in reserve. Anytime knew the jig was up but followed through on his plan as best he could As his reavers came from the west, dt's emerged from the proxy gate above his natural. NaDa continued to defend and although he lost units and scv to the templars, he was much further ahead of Anytime, who had just competed his expansion but had few gateways. Undeterred, Anytime continued to send a string of dt's to their death, trying to buy as much time as possible for his fledgling economy. There was not time enough though. NaDa moved his tank/vult army north, seiged up outside the protoss natural and levelled it. In under 15 minutes, it was gg.

Anytime 1:1 NaDa

Anytime lost, but he can be happy with the fact that he lost under his terms. His build was quite smart, but his mistake was to place that second proxy in the place the first one is normally at. Had it been elsewhere (like the gas natural inches from the other nat) the game could have been very different.

Game 3: Arkanoid

The one thousand, two hundred and forty-third game of OSL history opened on a map worthy of these two foes. Anytime, in the upper right corner, had lost badly on this map with an all-in build against Midas in the semi-finals. He would have to come with something more substantive in the finals. His gate/gas build, coupled with NaDa's rax/gas build across at 7 o'clock marked a departure from the expo first builds that have dominated the map so far this season. As both marine and zealot shredded the zerg sacs blocking their expansions, Anytime worked towards reavers while NaDa floated his rax to scout and added a starport. He had built an academy also, and was preparing a vulture drop.

The timing of both builds was crucial, and NaDa got away first as Anytime had built no shuttle. His vulture harass failed miserably when the reaver in the mineral line saved all Anytime's fragile probes. With a double nexus in the works, NaDa came back with a payload of tanks and shutdown one of the two new expansions behind a well placed minefield.

As NaDa took his second expansion, both players continued with the shuttle play, alternating harassment at each other's base. However Anytime had been unable to do significant damage to the terran economy, and NaDa held his second expansion significantly longer than Anytime. The protoss shuttles continued to attempt raids on the scv lines, but NaDa's defense was perfect. As the terran fleet came north, Anytime passed by him with his own shuttles as he went south. Both players didn't flinch, and like a galactic game of chicken they flew into the teeth of each other's defenses. NaDa dropped, Anytime crashed and burned. The goliath micro from NaDa was perfect and protoss shuttles fell from the sky like rain. When another terran payload came to his other expansion, Anytime typed GG and sat looking elimination in the face.

NaDa 2:1 Anytime

Anytime had a great read on NaDa's build by keeping his initial reaver in the mineral line. However, he responded poorly to NaDa's second drop which killed his nexus with only two tanks. From that point on, he seemed very flustered as he constanly engaged with a smaller army. The end of the game was easy pickings for NaDa, who mearly had to mass and drop for the win.

Game 4: Arcadia II

While Anytime was in a must win situation, the terrain in game 4 must have pleased him. Protoss sported a 7-4 record vs T this season on Arcadia, including his wins vs Midas. But, it was not all good news. NaDa had not played a single game vs P this season on the map, giving Anytime little idea of what his opponent had in store. Both players spawned in the west, with Anytime at 7 and NaDa north of him at 11. As always with these positions, the ground behind the expansions would be crucial territory in determining the winner.

As Anytime warped in a single gateway and researched range, NaDa took two of his scv off gas momentarily to facilitate marine building. Using the very build that Midas used vs Anytime in their fateful game 5, it was exposed when a probe hidden in the corner snuck out and took a peak. Rather than pushing like Midas though, NaDa was content to just expand behind some power. Anytime quickly followed suit after his observer was out, and the macro game started in earnest for both players.

Rather than expand to his convenient mineral only, Anytime decided to take 6 o'clock, hoping for a quick three geysers. His observer speed allowed him to get a good view of his opponents army sitting at the choke and gateways sprouted like weeds in his main. NaDa resisted the urge to expand again, but instead focused on slow-pushing south towards Anytime's choke. Having only goons and lacking both a shuttle and zealots, the announcers howled about NaDa's timing as the protoss army was pressed against a wall. However, the timing they howled about was a minute too slow as Anytime smashed the fresh containment with a perfect wave of troops. NaDa was forced to retreat behind his choke and gather himself for a new attack.

Having escaped yet another early terran timing push, Anytime took his resource advantage and massively exploited it. He took his mineral only and began upgrading air power. With NaDa trying to push out of his base, Anytime simultaneously build three gate carriers and halted the terran in his tracks. Despite the huge casualties on both sides, Anytime pushed through a seemingly IMPOSSIBLE terran army and sent NaDa reeling home. The first carriers popped, and while NaDa tried to take 12, he was slow in scanning the threat and was caught with no goliaths. Anytime continued to hold the pace of play, although he had failed to increase his expansion count. It mattered not though, because Anytime again hit the terran choke with goons and carriers. NaDa could deal with the air, but the goons tore him up from underneath, and the series was going to an epic fifth game.

Anytime 2:2 NaDa

There may be no terran player in the world who can beat Anytime straight-up on this map. It would require cheese or a micro mistake from Anytime, and he simply doesn't make mistakes.

Game 5: Tau Cross

And so we end where we started. Anytime took the same base as before, down at 5, while NaDa relocated to the 1 o'clock base. A quick scout from both players yeilded accurate intelligence, as NaDa again cut gas after his factory and scouted a one gate/robo build from the protoss. As he moved out with 6 marines and a tank, it looked very much like a standard fast expansion build from NaDa. The difference was the starport being built in the corner of his main. As Anytime positioned his troops for a frontal assault, the dropship unloaded two vultures into the protoss main, mined up an area behind the minerals, and then ferried the rest of his troops behind that barrier. Anytime scattered his probes, defended with his goons, and then had to deal with vultures streaming into his expansion. His defense was impecable, and he lost minimal probes. NaDa continued his dropship play, but at each turn he was foiled while Anytime continued to mass.

While NaDa's factories churned with furious production, wile back in the protoss base very fast carriers warped into view. Anytime felt that his defense had given an opportunity for victory, and he looked to seize it in the air. NaDa scanned, saw, and reacted. His timing push descended on Anytime as his nickname suggests, like a tornado of devastation. The clamps of his seige tanks dug into the earth outside the protoss base, and wings of vultures swooped in front of them, buying them the time to deliver their deadly payload. Anytime's troops, which had seemed invincible for so long melted under the enslaught. Before even one of the blimps took flight, Anytime was gazing at a battlefield owned by terran tanks. He shook his head once, tapped gg, and watched NaDa run out of his booth to claim the golden mouse.

NaDa 3:2 Anytime

Boxer couldn't do it. JulyZerg couldn't do it. NaDa could. In one swift push, NaDa ended the Legend of the Fall and cemented himself as the winningest gamer of all time. This OSL belonged to him and no other. Since OGN switched to the 24 gamer system, winning the title has become so much more difficult. Enourmous respect goes out to NaDa for fulfilling his comeback and winning a title in three very different eras.

While I would never be so brash as to say that we here work as hard as the gamers that play the game, I would like to take a moment to give some recognition to some people who helped TL cover the OSL so well this season. First and foremost is ManaBlue, who wrote with me side-by-side for the season. This is an impossible leage to cover by yourself, and having backup is always appreciated. Cheers to you. I know perfectly well how much time this takes, and I respect that.

Secondly I want to give huge props to PoP and jkillashark for maintaining the result thread and liquibet. These things enrich the coverage so much, and make my job much easier.

Lastly a huge thank you goes to people who have no coloured letters. Cadical, Live2Win, rinizim, and everyone else who uploads VODs are people who allow us to write reports in a timely manner. People like Honestea and WhatisProtoss bring us the storylines, and inch us slightly closer to the Korean world of BW.

Without the readers, there is no reason to write. Thanks for reading and taking the time to say thanks. See you next season!